Nashville Cats

Where the Del McCoury Band takes most material with solemn reverence, here they bring something looser and more celebratory — a tribute song that carries real affection rather than obligation. The Lovin' Spoonful original had a jug-band looseness and a winking cleverness; the bluegrass translation amplifies the virtuosity the lyrics are celebrating, turning the song into a kind of self-referential performance. The banjo runs are rapid and ornate, McCoury's vocals have a grin baked into them, and the whole ensemble bounces with the kind of ensemble confidence that only comes from musicians who've played together long enough to anticipate each other's instincts. It celebrates Nashville session musicians — those anonymous architects behind countless recordings — with genuine reverence for craft, and in McCoury's version that reverence is performed rather than stated, because the band is itself demonstrating exactly the kind of musicianship the song praises. It's bright and quick and alive in a way that his more doleful material isn't, and it reveals how much range there is within the bluegrass idiom when players are operating at this level. This is festival music, afternoon music, the kind of song that makes you want to watch whoever's playing the banjo very closely.